Never before seen diary entries from people living through the Sheffield Blitz have been turned into a new book

For decades their words have been held in the Mass-Observation Archive, a time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten now they have been collated and put together in a new book.

Now, as the country faces the greatest period of social dislocation since the War, Blitz Spirit anthologised by Becky Brown, is more relatable than ever before.

Through them we can see the shifting shape of the country’s attitude towards the topics that now fill our history books: towards the War; towards Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill; towards the result of the 1945 general election that we now assume must have been shocking.

But beneath these great things are many small lives, the minutiae of which reveal striking similarities with 2020 life: hoarding and unemployment; an inescapable, 24-hour news cycle; wearing masks – or not; the mental health impacts of a world turned upside down; life without haircuts.

Becky Brown said: “From panic-buying and competitively digging for victory to extraordinary acts of bravery, Blitz Spirit is a remarkable collection of real wartime experiences that represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity.

"The Sheffield diarists included in the book bring so much personality and humour to the collection. There’s an accountant who offers piercing insights into family life, and a clerk and housewife called Edie Rutherford who shares her opinions on most things: gas masks, tin hats, affairs, the black market, Churchill – she is extremely funny. They come together with the other diarists to shine a light on the people we were, and the people we are now.”

The Blitz Spirit book has 23 diary entries from people living in Sheffield through the Second World War and also tells the national tale of how people were feeling at the time. The diary entries were stored at the Mass-Observation Archive which is one of Britain's richest collections of material about everyday life. At its core is an unrivalled series of "ordinary" people's diaries, most of which were kept during the Second World War.

Some of these diary entries, which feature in the new book include an accountant from Sheffield wrote on Christmas Day 1940: “We switched the news on at 6pm as my brother wished to know if the RAF had been over Germany last night. He was relieved that they had not as we might then get Christmas evening in peace.”

And another from one Sheffield housewife remarked in 1942 that: “War seems satisfactory in a slow fashion. I get horrid presentiments that 1943 is going to be hideous but I feel we can’t avoid it so let us get it over and oh God let us do things properly afterwards so we don’t have any more wars.”

Blitz Spirit: Voices of Britain Living Through Crisis takes stories from normal people all across the country and thoughtfully brings to the forefront how troubling and demanding the war was on all walks of life. This book is a fascinating window into the lives of people from the past.

The book will be out on October 8, 2020 priced £16.99

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